This invention relates generally to a device for providing additional sleeping and or resting accommodations such as a bed in a limited space area and in particular relates to a new and novel self-standing supporting structure having novel features that permit the accommodation to be retracted when not in use to thereby provide maximum room space in the area.
In college and university dormitories, the space area assigned to a student in the dormitory is usually very limited. For example, a typical dormitory space allocated to sleeping accommodations may be as small as 8 feet by 12 feet. Since a college student may want to have a bed, a couch, a chair, a refrigerator and other items in the limited dormitory space area, the extremely cramped space can present problems.
In many penal institutions and hospitals, a problem can occur in providing overflow sleeping and/or resting accommodations for the inhabitants of the building during critical times of emergencies when limited beds are available. In a similar manner, during weather emergencies, towns and communities are often required to provide temporary sleeping accommodations in school gymnasiums and other areas for lengthy periods of time. These emergency situations may have to continue until the town can recover from the emergency and the occupants can get back to their homes which sometimes may have to be rebuilt.
Prior art devices of the type conceived by the applicants' are not known to be available to solve the problems of providing temporary sleeping and or resting accommodations in limited space areas such as the before mentioned dormitories, penal institutions, hospitals and other places where quick and temporary solutions are desired.
It is always possible to hang beds from the walls or the ceilings of an area using brackets attached to the walls and ceilings. But the use of attached brackets for hanging the temporary sleeping accommodations is not desirable in most cases. Since the wall and ceiling bracket attachment would have to be removed after the temporary overcrowding or emergency condition had ended, the removal of the attachments may often require extensive patching of the walls and ceiling where the brackets were fastened. The initial set-up and after removal costs of restoring the area can be costly and such solution does not appear to be a viable alternative to the applicant's solution to the problem as will be shown hereafter.
The use of permanent bunk bed frames for temporary accommodations may not be a very practical alternative either since permanent bunk beds are generally formed of a welded construction which makes their storage, after the need for the temporary use is over, very difficult because the beds can not readily be broken down for storage.